ok so i have been hearing talk about smoking ban on all fire houses! I myself am only a volunteer with hopes on becoming a pro in the next few years but it still is a very interesting thing to me! could it affect the volunteer setting as well? im not a smoker ya but i dont mind if people do it! i chew when im around the station wether it be a paid firehouse or my volunteer station i realize that it is a nasty habbit, but it wether anyone likes it or not is very relaxing and its a social piece and if people have a problem with it i usually give them the benifit of the doubt and walk away, even though most of the time they cant tell i have one in! i mean are they taking too much from us as firefighters? and what does everyone think about chewing at the fire house? please help me out!

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about 96% of out volunteer dept chews or smokes including me and some do both we dont allow smoking in the social hall kitchen ect.. if you want to smoke you go outside or in the bay and chewing is kind of the same way if you spit spit in a drain, outside, in a cup, or a puddle of water. yes some people spit on the bay floor which i think is nasty. you can smoke or chew on calls providing your not wearing an SCBA or sitting in the apparatus. and really i think thats the way it should be.
You know u guys all have very good points! i mean yah its a bad image but our friends in the movie business kinda helped out with the image i mean have u ever seen a firefighter movie or anythin were there wasnt one smoking! so yah! but i do agree with everyone it is a nasty habbit, but im not gonna quit anytime soon as far as i know! and yah dont do it in the truck or leave ur spitter around! alot of why people dont like it is because of the jack ass's who leave their spitter around or spit around a truck or on the floor for somone to get into and have to see thats why alot of people dont like it! i dont like touchin my own spit either or gettin into somone elses! ha and as far as the blow jobs in the fire house i think u guys should start another chat so we can all join hahahha just playin! but seriously were is it aloud to sleep with a female there and try to get cancer!? i would like to check it out! u know for educational purposes!
O and i dont mean any disrespect to anyone!!! all good clean fun!
i dont think it should taken away.. it is effecting the fund raisers and that for the vol. dept.. y cant u just have a smoking section and nonsmoking.. and the chewing as long as u spit in a cup i see not prob wit it
First off I smoke, and I would never think of smoking in the station. We're allowed to smoke in the bays and anywhere outside. God help us if the boss find cigarette butts anywhere on the ground. As for the dipping, it needs to go at our station. I am SICK and TIRED of coming in and finding spit bottles and cups, I don't do it, I don't care if you do it, but I damn sure ain't comin in to pick up behind them. Last guy decided to fill his spit cup just about to the top and leave it on the desk got it dumped right in his turnout boots. He didn't care for that too much.
I HATE IT!!!!!!!! I wish it was gone forever...Im not a smoker or chewer but have has several clothes ruined when I dump the trash by irresponsible chewers. I have also seen several peices of furniture ruined by these same individuals. Its disgusting. A recent study out of the University of Kansas reported that firefighters are 300% more likely to get some sort of cardiovascular disease from uncommon factors. Which means we get these diseases from things other than the normal bad diet and no physical activity.....Add smoking and chweing into that and your risk factors increase even more....so it just baffles me why you would smoke or chew in this proffesion.
Cups spill and leak....when I was a cadet at the volly house we had to dum the trash cant tell you how many jeans I ruined becuase the "chew juice" leaked out of the bag.

How is effecting fundraisers? If you vollie department is selling or advocating the use of tobacco then you have a big problem. How do you justify selling this stuff then going on a medical run for difficulty breathing and telling a patient not to smoke?
First off, a brother who bills himself as "only a volunteer" is in much greater need of help and experience than he is asking for here. Secondly, Robert Owens just nailed it. As a former smoker, my take is this: The use of tobacco products is a hold-over from a time when we didnt know any better and brothers believed it supported their macho image. Today its generally percieved as an indication of real insecurity. It's like wearing a huge sign with a strong message that reads "I'm a fool and I dont care who knows it. Oral gratification is more important to me than any of you." Chewing is as suicidal as smoking. In my visits to Roswell Park Memorial Cancer Center in Buffalo, I've seen patients whose lips and nose or entire lower jaws have been removed to rid them of cancer. That makes it real hard to chew anything. They also dont smoke anymore. We've all been in meetings where we had to watch some unfortunate delinquent (of any age) spew tobacco snot into a cup or bottle. How could some people have to be told that that is vulgar, offensive and very disrespectful? What planet are they from? The best station sign Iv'e seen reads "THE USE OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS ON THESE PREMISES IS FORBIDDEN ." Having a smoking area in a building is like having a pissing area in a pool. Its nonsense. Do we have any responsibility to set good examples in this area or is this some sacred cow that the rest of us are expected to just go along with? I dont. Guess my button got pushed. Keep The Faith.
I am in a Volunteer Co. in PA we are not allowed to smoke in our station except for when it it members only. If there is anyone under 18 or a non member any where in our building or garage bays we can not smoke. There are quite a few of us that do chew in the dept and to be honest as gross and as bad as people think it is its cleaner than the smoking. I am constantly cleaning up cigarette filled cups, full ashtrays, ashes. There is stuff everywhere empty cartons and wrapers. I dont mind if people smoke but they never clean up after them selves. Those of us that chew rarely ever but i would probably say never leave our spitter around or empty cans. That is my only complaint with smoking.
Its hurting our fundraising in PA especially for Monte Carlos and Bingos because all of the people that would come there to gamble are not allowed to smoke now. So instead they are going to the casinos in WV or Erie and none of the money is coming to us and our attendance has droped.
Having put the first post here, I've just caught up with the thread. It's certainly been an interesting read! Captain B? Thanks for including smoking products as HAZMAT - that is in line with my thinking. (I've just been reading about your other bit of info, that of oral sex being one cause of mouth, throat and other cancers.) All other posters? I too thank you for posting your opinions.

The banning of smoking being an infringement of the rights of the smokers? This is a comment that was made very loudly when we first started banning smoking in public buildings, the workplace, in restaurants, in pubs, on public transport etc.. Does such a ban truly infringe on people's rights? I suppose that depends on a specific meaning for the word 'rights'. My view on the matter has always been that when a person makes a conscious decision to smoke, then it is up to that person to act so that their actions don't have a negative effect on those who do NOT to smoke, the rights of a non-smoker to clean air. As a non smoker, why should I have to put up with the foul smell and harmful effects of cigarette smoke when I'm in a public place, a place that my tax has helped pay for?

We have some smokers in my brigade, three that we see a lot and another couple that we don’t see often. There is no smoking allowed in the building. Smoking is permitted out the back, and there is an ashtray out there. An ashtray? I think we may be infringing the law there, in that it is fixed to the wall between two doors into the station, I mentioned that to the Captain and will see what happens. If it is actually against the law it will be moved.

Something I noticed. In one thread I read that the law in PA is now that there is to be no smoking in fire stations – amongst other places. (I had to check that ‘PA’ and ‘Penn’ are the same State, you have so many States over there!) Then another poster advises that his FD allows smoking as long as there are only FD members present. If the first post is correct then the second post is advising that an FD is condoning a breach of the law. Yes smokers get very irate when they are banned from indulging, but if it’s the law, then surely an FD should be doing the right thing?

Is smoking a habit, or is it an addiction? Habits are easy to break, even bad habits. I’ve broken bad habits; some driving habits, swearing in places where it may upset people for instance. Many smokers have difficulty stopping because their bodies crave the nicotine. You decide – habit or addiction?
at our station we are allowed to smoke in the truck bays only.

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